Robbie Millen

Thrilled I WANNA BE LOVED BY YOU - my new biography of Marilyn Monroe - is book of the week in the Times! Thanks @simonschusterUK @timesculture @thetimes #marilyn #marilynmonroe Enjoy this article for free. thetimes.com/culture/books/…

I can't help wondering how many people will get to the end of this sprawling new James Baldwin. thetimes.com/article/06e265…

Rasputin, Putin, Trump ... I interviewed the mighty historian Antony Beevor. He's great company thetimes.com/culture/books/…

For @thetimes, I reviewed Adrian Wooldridge's very good new book, Centrists of the World, Unite! It is full of great, uncontaminated, healing draughts of liberalism for the anxious centrist thetimes.com/culture/books/…

Gavin Newsom’s Young Man in a Hurry Part confession, part demon-facing, part pre-campaign hygiene before a possible White House run. Book review for @thetimes thetimes.com/culture/books/…

Working list of senior figures reportedly killed in Iran today (all tbc, and several not verified as yet); hearing plenty of other names too - but attributions more vague/less reliable as yet Ali Khamenei, Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, son and heir apparent Aziz Nasirzadeh, Minister of Defence Mohammad Shahadi, Head of the Military Staff of the Supreme Leader of Iran. Ali Shamkhani Head of ecurity and Intelligence to the Leadership Council. Mohammad Pakpour, Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ali Reza Tangsiri, head of IRGC Navy Saleh Asadi, head of the Intelligence Directorate of the “Khatam al-Anbiya” command Mohammad Shirazi, head of the Military Bureau of the Supreme Leader Hossein Jabal Amelian, Chairman of SPND - سازمان پژوهش‌های نوین دفاعی (Organisation of Innovation and Research)

Europe’s only novelist Michel Houellebecq is 70 today. I interviewed him in 2024. He smoked a lot and wanted to know about Boris Johnson’s love life.

Inherited dad’s spaniel. City acclimatisation proceeding well.

"It struck him that the last time he sat at long tables eating with scores of strangers was at Butlin’s." The young Melvyn Bragg at Oxford. thetimes.com/article/2c001d…

"He told him she would understand if he wanted to leave her — stuck as she was, in a wheelchair. He insisted, by contrast, that she was stuck with him, and against all the odds he turned out to be her rock." Very moving account of a marriage thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/…

For @timesculture I’ve reviewed Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir Gisèle Pelicot memoir review — ‘Love is not dead. I am not dead’ thetimes.com/article/d6f328…

On the greatest Jew since Jesus (and, briefly, boyfriend of Frida Kahlo). My lead review in the Times: thetimes.com/culture/books/…

Bernie Gunther is coming to a whole new audience....thetimes.com/culture/books/…

Just finishing the whole Alms for Oblivion series It is indeed like A Dance to the Music of Time - superficially But Raven is unique, disrespectful, strangely funny and highly literate You should read Simon Raven (h/t @ClarkeMicah) #literature spectator.com/article/you-sh…

“One of the best political memoirs I’ve read in years.” - The Times Thanks to Patrick Maguire for a generous review. thetimes.com/culture/books/…

A sad day for journalism: @JeffBezos (net worth $250billion) has just executed a bloodbath at the @washingtonpost, which he owns. No more books and arts sections, no more foreign coverage, no more sports, podcasts, opinion. More than just the end of an era, a victory for vacuousness and greed.

Lovely obituary of a terrific fellow and writer thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/…

Allan Massie, 1938-2026 open.substack.com/pub/alexmassie…

I'm here to spread gloom! Well, we had fun choosing 12 of our favourite downbeat novels ... thetimes.com/culture/books/…

Hero of the day. Tony Slater, who rummaged through discarded McDonald’s litter, found a receipt, contacted the local environmental health officer. Who contacted McD, who used CCTV to work out the car responsible. Result: £500 fine. 💥